le, his necktie astray. He and Mrs. Sardis exchanged a brief
stare; she gave me a look of profound pain and passed in dignified
silence down the stairs; Ispenlove came into the flat.

'Nothing will convince her now that I am not a liar,' I reflected.

It was my last thought as I sank, exquisitely drowning, in the sea of
sensations caused by Ispenlove's presence.

II

Without a word, we passed together into the drawing-room, and I closed
the door. Ispenlove stood leaning against the piano, as though intensely
fatigued; he crushed his gibus with an almost savage movement, and then
bent his large, lustrous black eyes absently on the flat top of it. His
thin face was whiter even than usual, and his black hair, beard, and
moustache all dishevelled; the collar of his overcoat was twisted, and
his dinner-jacket rose an inch above it at the back of the neck.

I wanted to greet him, but I could not trust my lips. And I saw that he,
too, was trying in vain to speak.

At length I said, with that banality which too often surprises us in
supreme moments:

'What is it? Do you know that your tie is under your ear?'

And as I uttered these words, my voice, breaking of itself and in
defiance of me, descended into a tone which sounded harsh and inimical.

'Ah!' he murmured, lifting his eyes to mine, 'if you turn against me
to-night, I shall--'

'Turn against you!' I cried, shocked. 'Let me help you with your
overcoat!'

And I went near him, meaning to take his overcoat.

'It's finished between Mary and me,' he said, holding me with his gaze.
'It's finished. I've no one but you now; and I've come--I've come--'

He stopped. We read one another's eyes at arm's length, and all the
sorrow and pity and love that were in each of us rose to our eyes and
shone there. I shivered with pleasure when I saw his arms move, and then
he clutched and dragged me to him, and I hid my glowing face on his
shoulder, in the dear folds of his overcoat, and I felt his lips on my
neck. And then, since neither of us was a coward, we lifted our heads,
and our mouths met honestly and fairly, and, so united, we shut our eyes
for an eternal moment, and the world was not.

Such was the avowal.

I gave up my soul to him in that long kiss; all that was me, all that was
most secret and precious in me, ascended and poured itself out through my
tense lips, and was received by him. I kissed him with myself, with the
entire passionate energy of my bei